Pakistan's two biggest political parties yesterday signalled they would back President Pervez Musharraf's call for national unity amid the looming crisis over threatened US military action against neighboring Afghanistan.
Despite concerns that a conflict could consolidate the military's grip on power, both the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) indicated they would not support protests by Islamic parties.
The president, who has offered the country's airspace and logistical support for any US attack, said in a national television broadcast on Wednesday night that he had been forced to choose between saving Pakistan or saving the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan.
Musharraf urged the country to put the national interest first and resist the Islamic parties' calls for Pakistanis to side with their fellow Muslims in Afghanistan.
"I'm the chief of the Pakistan army and my first priority is the defense of Pakistan. The rest follows after," he said. "Some elements want to take advantage of this [crisis] to pursue personal or party agendas. They want to create anarchy and damage the country."
PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar acknowledged Pakistan had little option but to go along with the international community or face diplomatic isolation and the worsening of a severe economic crisis.
"We have to support the international fight against terrorism for the maintenance of law and order," Babar said.
Raja Zafarul Haq, the chairman of the PML, said US attacks would carry enormous risks for the security of Pakistan but also recognized that Musharraf had little choice but to side with Washington.
"It [a military attack] will have long-term implications and Pakistan may end up facing a situation on two fronts. The eastern border [with India] is already unsafe and now the western border [with Afghanistan] will be a problem.
"But obviously Musharraf took this decision under duress."
On the streets of Peshawar, not far from the Afghan border, hundreds of Islamic militants yesterday burned effigies of US President George W. Bush.
They shouted "Long live Osama bin Laden" and vowed a jihad, or holy war, against both America and the Pakistani government.
Additional protests were planned for yesterday and militants have called a nationwide strike today.
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